


Ficlets from the A Very Long Summer universe

by calathea



Series: A Very Long Summer [8]
Category: I Want To Go Home! - Korman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-23
Updated: 2009-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-05 01:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calathea/pseuds/calathea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Various short pieces from the AVLS universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween with Rudy, Mike &amp; the boys.

"I wanna be a space alien," said David, belligerently.

"Well, you can't be a space alien," said Andy, poking him in the chest, "I want to be a space alien. You only want to be a space alien because I said it first."

David poked him back. Andy poked him a bit harder. It all might have escalated into the normal pitched battle on the living room rug (which took place approximately 313 times per day between Andy and David) except that Rudy intervened.

"Boys," he sighed, "Have I taught you nothing about strategy?"

Andy stopped tugging at David's arm. "Huh?"

Rudy put down his newspaper and settled back into his armchair. He steepled his hands.

"What is the aim of Hallowe'en?" he said, half-closing his eyes in what Andy thought of as his Mysterious Wise Man pose.

"Candy!" said David, promptly.

"Correct," said Rudy, "Specifically, we are aiming to maximise the amount of candy this household receives, since Mike insists, unfairly I might add, on equal distribution of the spoils of Hallowe'en."

David blinked.

"He means that since Mike makes us put it all together and then split it up again, we should try to get a really big pile to start with," interpreted Andy.

"Oh." David didn't seem any more enlightened by this explanation.

"What makes people give you candy?" asked Rudy, his eyes suddenly fixed on Mike and Xav, sharing a book on the sofa.

"How good our costumes are?" said Andy.

David shook his head. "No, if that were the case, all the little kids running around in sheets with eye holes cut out wouldn't get anything."

Andy followed Rudy's gaze to Xav, who was grinning, gap-toothed, up at Mike as he read part of the story in a squeaky voice.

"Oooh," said Andy, "How cute the kids are!"

Rudy looked at him approvingly. "Precisely."

Andy, David and Rudy all gazed at Mike and Xav. Alerted by the sudden silence in the room, Mike glanced up. "What?" he said, finding them all looking at him. Andy started to grin, and turned to high-five with David.

"What? Rudy! What have you done?" Mike said, more alarmed by the moment.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Three days later, Mike looked in bewilderment at the vast amount of chocolate and candy that he and Xavier had collected, now piled on the living room floor. Xav, still in the costume he had violently opposed, stared at it in equal amazement. The other two boys were cackling, their space alien headbands bouncing as they laughed.

"I knew it would work!" Andy said, "No-one can resist Mike and Xav."

"It's a simple matter of strategy," Rudy said, in a superior tone, "If you combine a small, gap-toothed child in a sunflower costume with a perpetually ruffled and under-nourished looking male paediatrician, and let them loose on a predominantly female donor group, you will inevitably receive vast amount of candy."

Mike and Xav glared at him. Rudy looked back at them, unmoved.

"Next time, Mike should wear his tight jeans," said Andy, pouring M&amp;Ms into his mouth.

Mike recoiled in horror. "Ah, strategy," sighed Rudy, his voice almost pleased, and unwrapped a chocolate bar of his own.


	2. Something Extraordinary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Heath in-laws get together.

It was Faith's idea, of course, for the three of them to have dinner together a few weeks after Emily and Andy moved back to Vancouver.

"It'll be fun," she told Daniel cheerfully on the phone. "We can share tips on how to manage the Heath brothers. We in-law types need to stick together."

Being Faith, ten minutes after she'd thought of it, it was done. She booked a table at a new vegan restaurant that had just opened up in town, overrode the alarmed protests of Andy and David, who didn't see why they weren't allowed to come and feared the worst if their spouses got together, and bullied Xav into agreeing to pick them all up after dinner.

"I suppose I'll have to eat tofu," said Daniel, gloomily eying the restaurant. It looked all right from the outside, but he was willing to bet quite a lot of money the chairs would be uncomfortable and there would be a lot of bean curd on the menu.

Xav tapped the steering wheel of the car. "Probably," he said, with a grin. "Would you like me to save some of the pizza Andy said he'd order?"

Daniel frowned at him. "Have I mentioned how much I dislike you?"

"Not lately, no," said Xav, chuckling.

Daniel leaned in to kiss him. "I really do. Really," he said seriously as he pulled away again, and Xav laughed and stuck out his tongue.

Sighing, Daniel jumped out of the car, and watched as Xav pulled out and drove away with a wave. He glanced at the menu as he went through the door, and shuddered at the preponderance of sprouting broccoli, and at the prices.

Inside, Faith waved him over to their table. He sat down opposite the two women, and smiled. "Hello Faith. Emily, you look beautiful, how are you and the bump?"

"Thank you, we're fine," said Emily, pressing a hand to her rounded belly, "He's kicking pretty regularly now."

For a few minutes the conversation centred on Emily's pregnancy and the continuing trials of the house she and Andy had bought, which had turned into a nightmare of faulty wiring and temperamental plumbing. "It's a beautiful house though," she said, smiling at Faith, "David was right, it will be fabulous when we're finished renovating. We'll just have to cope with it falling apart around us in the meantime."

The waiter arrived to take their orders, and Daniel was briefly preoccupied with trying to find something edible on the menu. When he turned back, Emily was talking about their mutual in-laws.

"Mike and Rudy have been wonderful, I can't imagine how they could have done more for us," she was saying as the waiter left, Daniel having resigned himself to tofu. "I love the ob-gyn Mike recommended."

Faith and Daniel nodded. "They've always been like that," Daniel said, playing with his water glass. "Terrifying, of course, but there's nothing they won't do for their boys, and they've always been good to me."

Faith grinned at him. "You were pretty young when you got together with Xav, right? I can't imagine facing them as a teenager."

Daniel nodded, "He was eighteen when we met, I'm a year older. It took weeks for me to work up the courage to go round for dinner and meet them."

"Oh," said Emily, surprised, "I knew you two had been together a while, but I never knew it was that long."

"Yeah, we got to know each other a couple of months into his first semester at UBC," Daniel said, smiling as he remembered "Though I saw him around before then. I worked in the library, on an evening shift, and he used to come in every day and sit in roughly the same place to study. I used to try to catch glimpses of what he was studying, think of ways to start up a conversation with him. Then one night his pen exploded all over him, and I helped him get cleaned up. It all kind of went from there."

He felt his lips curl at the memory of Xav, confused and inky, laughing as Daniel found paper towels and helped him clean up. The weeks that followed had been a peculiar mixture of delight as their friendship developed, and frustration as Xav remained apparently oblivious to Daniel's interest in something beyond friendship. Daniel, himself quite shy, hadn't even been sure sometimes if Xav was aware Daniel liked men, let alone if he had noticed that Daniel liked him in particular.

He tuned back in to the conversation. "Eighteen is so young," Emily was saying, "I can't imagine still being with someone I was with back then. The guys I dated when I was eighteen were so different to Andy."

"Mike and Rudy met when they were thirteen or fourteen, didn't they?" asked Faith.

"Well, they met then," said Daniel, laughing as Emily boggled, "I don't think they were actually together until they were older. Didn't Andy tell you the story?"

Emily shook her head, looking bewildered. "He just said they had been together since university. I suppose I was thinking they met when they were in their twenties."

"No, no," said Faith, crunching a breadstick. "They were friends for years when they were still kids, though you're right, they weren't a couple until later."

She chewed contemplatively. "I bet they were hot together," she said, "Scorching, in fact."

"Faith!" said Emily, shocked into laughter.

"What?" said Faith, mischievously, "They're not exactly ugly now, and I've seen my uncle's photos of them from when he first met them. Plus, everyone's seen photos of Rudy when he was younger." She pretended to fan herself with her hand.

"Oh no," Emily said, putting her hands in the air as if to ward Faith off, "No way I'm talking about them like this. Next time I see them, it's all I'll be able to think about, and then I'll go red, and Rudy will just _know_, somehow, and _nothing_ good can come of that."

"They do have something special," said Daniel, when the laughter died down a little, "The first time I saw them…"

He broke off for a moment. The first time he met Rudy and Mike had been memorable. Within a few weeks of the exploding pen incident he had become accustomed to seeing Xav every night at the library. He started to study there himself in the evenings when he wasn't working, just so he could get to know Xav better. Xav would study for a few hours then either Daniel would finish his shift, or take a break from his own work and coax Xav over to the little coffee shop not far from the library. They rarely missed a day, so when Xav hadn't shown up for three days in a row, Daniel had started to worry. He'd gone in search of Xav in the dorms, remembering some scrap of information Xav had let fall about where he lived. When he banged on the door another boy, disconcertingly like Xav, answered.

"Hello, you must be David," Daniel had said, realizing he was looking at Xav's oft-mentioned twin brother "I was looking for Xavier."

The other boy had raised his eyebrows. "Gone, moved back home," he'd said, laconically.

Daniel had been floored, his stomach sinking into his shoes. "He dropped out? But he works so hard!"

"No, no, nothing like that," David had said, looking amused. "He just found it hard to live in the dorm, even sharing with me. Look, I've got to go to class, 'scuse me."

He had started to walk away, and Daniel, still taken aback, watched him for a moment before running to catch up. "No, wait," he had said, "Can you give me a phone number or something?"

David had raised an eyebrow in an expression Daniel now knew he'd stolen from Rudy. "Why would you want his number?"

"Well. Er," Daniel had stuttered, "I just. He. I."

David had just watched him flounder. "Uh-huh."

"No," Daniel had finally managed to say, "I just want to call, say hi, you know."

David had looked even more sceptical. "Well," he had said, "If it were up to me, then I wouldn't do this, but…" He had handed over a slip of paper. "Hurt him, and I'll rip your arms off and beat you to death with them," he had continued, conversationally.

Daniel had accepted the number in nerveless fingers and blinked foolishly at David as he had sauntered off.

A couple of days later, he had driven out to the long rambling house that Rudy and Mike still called home now. Obeying the instructions Xav had given him, he had pulled his battered Jeep up in front of the garage, skirting carefully around a sleek black sports car and a blue Volvo with a "Doctor On Call" sticker in the front window. Xav had almost immediately come down from his little apartment over the garage to greet him.

He couldn't remember what they had talked about, but he remembered thinking how much happier Xav had seemed in the garage apartment – better rested and calmer, somehow. He had just been resigning himself to the loss of their quiet evening rendezvous in the library, when Xav had asked shyly whether, now he was settled in to his new home, Daniel would still meet him at the library in the evenings. He had just as shyly agreed, and for a moment he had been certain that Xav shared his growing attraction. After a long, awkward pause though, and to Daniel's dismay, Xav had changed the subject. A few moments later, he had excused himself to get a book from his bedroom he wanted to show Daniel, who had stood up and wandered to the window. It overlooked a small courtyard filled with rose bushes, and a man had been standing there, coffee cup in hand, admiring the flowers. As he had watched, another man joined him, sliding his arms around his partner from behind. They had stood in a loose embrace for a moment, until the man with the cup had turned to share a kiss.

Stunned, Daniel had reeled back from the window. Xav had mentioned he had been adopted, sometime in those evenings over coffee, but he'd never mentioned two men had adopted him, nor that one of them was Rudy Miller, local sporting hero. More than that, Daniel had been stricken to the core by the sweetness, the passionate intensity that even that brief glance into Rudy and Mike's relationship had revealed, and he'd been half aware of his hormones and his heart chiming in together to say _That. With Xav. I want that._

All of these memories passed through Daniel's mind in a matter of moments, until he was recalled to himself by Faith's laughing prompt: "The first time you saw them?" she said.

"Let's just say they left a strong impression," said Daniel, and winked at her.

Faith looked curious, but just then the meal arrived, and when they had all received their plates, the conversation moved on to more general topics.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Faith and Daniel had made inroads into a bottle of wine, and had Emily in stitches with stories Rudy and Mike had told them about the Heath boys growing up. Suddenly gasping, she pressed a hand to the gentle mound of her belly. "Oh, ouch," she said, "I think I woke Junior up."

Daniel jumped up to help her when she started to get to her feet. "I'm just going to run to the ladies room," she said, smiling at them and thanking Daniel as she moved away from the table.

Sighing happily, Faith poured the last of the wine. "See, wasn't this fun?" she said, beaming at Daniel and flipping her multi-coloured hair over her shoulder. "And you even enjoyed the tofu."

Daniel grinned at her. "Yes, it was a good idea. I think Emily's getting tired though. I'll call Xav and get him to come pick us up."

Faith nodded and he pulled out his phone and had a short conversation with Xav.

"So, the first time you met Mike and Rudy?" she asked, curiously, when he'd replaced the phone in his pocket.

He grinned at her. "Oh, the first time I met them, they were terrifying," he said, "I was the first person Xav ever took home to meet the parents, so to speak, and they reacted accordingly. It was like some good cop, bad cop routine from a bad movie. Mike kept trying to talk to me, while Rudy ghosted around in the background fingering his letter opener and casting significant looks at the poker by the fire. But the first time I saw them…"

He smiled reminiscently, and copied her little fanning gesture from earlier. "In the rose garden," he said, and Faith giggled.

Emily bustled back up to the table a few moments later, and the conversation broke up. Xav arrived promptly, gently escorted Emily into the seat beside him, and mocked them all for eating tofu while he and his brothers had stuffed themselves with pizza for the duration of the journey home.

The sight of pizza boxes, beer bottles and the remaining Heath brothers playing on their Playstation confirmed Xav's description of their evening when the four of them walked back through the door of Xav and Daniel's house. Daniel, lingering to help Emily out of her coat, watched as Xav waded in to laugh at Andy's low score, and Faith dropped into David's lap and stole his beer bottle. He and Emily exchanged a smile.

"Do you ever ask to yourself what you must have done in a previous life to deserve all this?" Emily had asked, impulsively, blushing a little at the romantic notion. Before he had time to answer though, Andy had swooped down on his wife and was teasing her into fits of giggles.

Daniel forgot about her question until later that night. Once their guests had been evicted, and Xav had sheepishly cleared the living room of the accumulated detritus, Daniel had seduced his very willing partner up the stairs to bed. Now they lay, skin to skin, in each others arms.

"What did I do to deserve you?" Daniel whispered into Xav's shoulder. Xav murmured sleepily and held on a little tighter. "It must have been something extraordinary."


	3. Happiness is for sharing

Rudy finished off his soda and watched Mike grin at some of the other parents at the edge of the sports field. The kids were all huddled around their coaches for their post-game huddle, and Mike was entertaining himself, apparently, by being unrelentingly cheerful and optimistic at the other parents, in spite of the fact their team had lost 5-1.

The other parents didn't seem to appreciate Mike's happiness quite as much as Rudy thought they ought. One or two of them were even looking askance at the way Xav had attached himself to Mike, his arms wrapped around Mike's thigh as if he feared Mike would attempt to run away unless held down. Mike was apparently oblivious to his leech-like companion, except that he had occasionally stroked a reassuring hand through Xav's hair in between cheering for Andy.

Rudy saw one of the boring suburban fathers -- one of the guys who had shrieked at his kid during the game in a way that reminded Rudy unpleasantly of his own childhood --- turn away from Mike and roll his eyes. Casually, Rudy stood up and wandered over to Mike, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Hi!" Mike said, turning carefully so as not to dislodge Xav. "That was a pretty good goal, huh?"

Rudy tipped his head to one side. It had been a messy, scrambling goal. Andy's pass into the strike zone had gone wide, and it was really only sheer luck that had allowed another player to get hold of the ball. He wasn't entirely certain that it would have gone in at all if the goalkeeper hadn't tripped over his own shoelaces.

Mike, though, was beaming, and Xav had turned a happy, expectant face up to Rudy. Some of the closer parents were obviously eavesdropping. Fortunately, before Rudy could give any kind of verbal response, Andy and David came running off the field, bouncing happily. The rest of their team followed gloomily behind.

"Hi Mike! Hi Rudy!" Andy said. "Did you see our goal?"

"It was very good!" Mike said, grinning. "We were just saying."

David and Andy glowed with enthusiasm. "I guess we still lost," David said, without too much concern, and then appeared to dismiss the subject. "Can we get ice cream on the way home?"

Everyone turned to look at Rudy hopefully, even Mike. "I think a goal merits ice cream," he said.

One of the shrieking soccer dads turned to stare at them. His own son was drooping miserably beside him, and the man's face was ridiculously disappointed. His lip curled at Rudy's crowd happy, chattering kids, at Mike negotiating with Xav for the use of his leg. Rudy momentarily considered sticking his tongue out at him, but in the end just sneered. The man blinked in surprise, but Rudy just turned away, offered a hand for Xav to hold, and walked away.


	4. Happiness is knitting a sweater

It all started when the latest craze to sweep through the hospital staff (which was actually worse than high school for the crazy fads) turned out to be knitting. Mike spent three days in a row trying to avoid giving his opinion on wool colours and patterns, but finally succumbed when Linda, the most frightening nurse in the entire world made him model her latest creation (in a nice shade of teal, with a cable knit pattern) for the rest of the nurses on the women's med/surg ward.

"It's very nice," Mike offered nervously, while several equally terrifying nurses circled him critically. Linda's eyebrows rose. Mike fingered the cuff nervously. "My... uh. Rudy would look good in it."

Linda snorted. "It's for my sister's boy," she said. "He's skinny like you."

Mike subsided. Linda did not approve of Mike's alleged skinniness, and was inclined to take him to task for it.

He looked thoughtfully down at the sweater. "It's a pretty great sweater," he said. "Could... would you make one for me? I could pay."

Linda narrowed her eyes at him. "No," she said, sharply. "But I will teach you how to make your own."

* * *

[some weeks later]

"It's a sweater," Rudy said, blankly, pulling it out of the bag.

"Yeah," Mike said.

Rudy blinked at him. "In the middle of your extremely busy shift today," he said, "The one where you had nine patients admitted after a bus accident, you decided to go out shopping and buy me blue sweater."

He held the sweater up critically. It was navy, the wool very soft, with a simple pattern.

"No, I, uh," Mike said, suddenly realizing how very awkward it was going to be to explain the sweater. "I kind of... knitted it."

Rudy's eyes opened a fraction wider. "You _knitted it_," he said, a tinge of disbelief colouring his voice.

"Yeah, and Scary Linda stitched it together for me. Actually," Mike admitted, "A few of the nurses did the difficult bits for me. But I did a lot of it."

"You knitted me a sweater," Rudy said again. He fell silent, still holding the sweater up.

"Um," said Mike, awkwardly. "Well, you don't have to wear it or anything. It was just something to do in the boring patches."

Rudy stood up without a word and stripped off the sweater he was wearing, before pulling the one Mike had made for him over his head. The sleeves were maybe a little too long -- Mike had figured out the sizes on his own body and he obviously had longer arms -- and there were a couple of places where the pattern had gone wrong. It looked good on Rudy, but then Mike kind of thought most things looked good on Rudy.

"You don't have to wear it," Mike said again.

Rudy raised an eyebrow. "You made it for me," he said, with great finality.

"Oh," said Mike, and found himself grinning stupidly. Rudy raised his other eyebrow, and Mike blushed and looked away. When he looked back though, Rudy was adjusting the cuffs of the sweater with the faintest of smiles. Mike let his grin break through again, smiling until his cheeks ached with it.


	5. 60 years after AVLS

It was a warm Tuesday in June when the letter arrived. Mike was just contemplating dragging Rudy out for a walk around the block before lunch when the mail carrier came up the drive.

"Afternoon, Dr Webster!" she said cheerfully, "How are you? Your roses look wonderful."

Mike smiled at her and accepted the mail, making small talk about the roses he'd been growing in their front garden since they first moved in. That must have been before she was even born, he decided, catching the quirk of the mail woman's lips, and he found himself boggling all over again at the passage of time.

After she left, whistling cheerfully and swinging her bag, he walked back to the house, paging through the letters. "Bill," he sighed as he walked through the door, shuffling through the letters. "Bill, bill, you-have-been-pre-approved, bill, please-give-us-money, ooo..."

He stopped at a thick, cream-coloured envelope made of heavy embossed paper. "Rudy!" he shouted, turning the letter over. "Rudy! RUDY!"

"I'm not the deaf one," Rudy said, as Mike walked into his office. "There's no need to yell."

"This looks important," Mike said, impatiently. "And I'm not deaf either. I just... choose not to hear you sometimes."

Rudy raised his eyebrows with a faintly skeptical air. "Really," he said, dryly. He took the letter from Mike and flipped it over to look at the crest on the back. His eyebrows flew upwards into his hairline. Mike spent a moment contemplating the unfairness of Rudy's head of silvery grey hair.

Rudy picked up a letter opener from his desk and slit open the envelope, pulling out the letter carefully. Mike watched his face, fascinated to see tiny twitches of emotion as Rudy read over the pages of the document. Finally the suspense was too much. "Well?" he demanded.

"It's from the King," Rudy said, "As you might have gathered from the envelope."

Mike nodded impatiently. "And?"

"Well, I doubt it's from the actual King," Rudy carried on, imperturbably, "Since I am sure he has better things to do. It's probably written by someone with a double-barreled name with two F."

He squinted at the signature. "Ah yes. Jason Wiley-Ffolkes," he said, sardonically.

Mike seriously contemplated throwing Rudy's paperweight at his head, even though the painted, glittery rock was a prized possession of Mike's, having been presented to him by their eldest grandson when he was in kindgarten. Plus, he acknowledged privately, his aim was not one of the skills that had improved with age and it would be a shame to break a window.

"If you don't tell me right now, I'll, I'll..." he started, and then paused, trying to think of a threat Rudy might believe. The problem with being, to all intents and purposes, married for sixty years was that it didn't leave you a lot of scope for believable menace.

Rudy looked at him. "You'll?" he prompted, with a tiny smirk.

"I'll think of something terrible to do to you," Mike finished, rather weakly.

"Ah, something terrible," Rudy replied. "I'm terrified."

Mike glared at him. "Twit," he muttered, and Rudy stood up and came to sit by him on the other side of the desk, passing him the letter and sitting back in his seat, his expression unmoved.

"You have been nominated for... for the Order of Canada!" Mike read, awed. "For services to Canadian sport as an athlete, and your work with young people in British Columbia. And there's a ceremony, out East, and some kind of fancy medal thing. Wow." He raised widened eyes at Rudy. "Wow, Rudy."

Rudy sighed. "And here I thought my character was finally beyond redemption," he complained. "I'm far too old to suddenly be respectable. It's too great a shock to the constitution."

Mike grinned at him. "I'm sorry to have to tell you," he said, putting the letter carefully on the desk, and reaching out to pat Rudy's hand gently. "You've been respectable for a very long time. It crept up on you around the same time people started calling you Mr. Miller rather than just shrieking MILLER! in your general direction."

Rudy put a hand to his heart dramatically and said, with a hint of reproach: "Never! I'll just have to do something awful to ward off this fate."

He glanced around the study, his eye falling at last on the pair of paintings that hung on his walls. "Perhaps we should hold an art exhibition again," he mused.

Mike laughed, glancing over at the portraits. "I don't think anyone would believe it was us," he protested. "And if you're even thinking about getting naked pictures of me now, you can think again!"

Rudy smirked again, but then stood up to look at the portraits more closely. "I remember," he said after a moment, turning back to Mike and offering him a hand up out of his seat. Mike came to his feet carefully, then moved to stand next to Rudy to look at the portraits. "I remember how I got you to pose the first time. And it's not like your alcohol tolerance has improved any."

Mike laughed and poked him reproachfully, but then sighed. He stared at the pictures a long time, at the boys they used to be. "Do you ever wish you could do it all again?" he said, finally, shocked at how wistful he sounded.

Rudy turned to look at him. "Would I have to do it all with you?" he asked.

Mike frowned at him. "Well, you'd better!" he said, hotly. "Why, who else would you want?"

Rudy looked at him for a long moment. "I don't know. Maybe this time round I could find Mitch Webber."

Mike poked him again, and Rudy flinched away. Mike ducked his head and let a smile curl his lips.

"Twit," Mike said, softly, and turned to touch his lips to Rudy's temple.

Rudy just inclined his head. "Of course," he said, "Come on, let's go for a walk, and you can help me think of a polite way to turn down the Order of Canada."


	6. Chapter 6

Mike stirred sleepily, half-opening one eye. The sun was streaming in through a gap in the curtains, outside the birds were singing an early morning song. He sighed, and let his eyelids slide closed. It was another beautiful summer day.

"Ack!" came a faint cry from downstairs, followed by a crash.

Mike didn't move.

"I think that was that vase your Aunt Maggie sent us when we moved out here," Rudy said, his voice muffled by his pillow. Mike opened one eye again.

"I hate that vase," Mike said, and yawned.

"Good," said Rudy, "Because I think it's in about a hundred pieces now."

Mike grunted, and shuffled closer, pressing his nose to Rudy's bicep.

Rudy hummed in response. They lay there unmoving for a few moments.

The murmur of voices from downstairs was gradually escalating in volume.

"Did so!"

"Did not!"

"Did so!"

There was another crash, and then silence.

"I should get up," Mike said, rolling up to a sitting position. "Before the house actually falls down around us."

Rudy yawned at him. "Well, if you will bring wild ravening beasts into our home," he said, stretching his arms above his head. "This is the price you pay."

"They aren't ravening beasts," Mike said. He paused. "Well, okay, they are. But they aren't worse than most kids."

"I definitely did not cause anywhere near this much damage during my summer vacations," Rudy said, loftily, pulling the sheet neatly around him.

Mike choked and started to laugh. "You... I was at camp with you, remember?" he said, between giggles. "You didn't cause damage...!"

Rudy raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you dispute that?"

Mike was laughing too hard to do anything but wave a hand at Rudy. Downstairs, another argument had broken out, so Rudy rolled out of bed too, reaching for the robe he'd left over the armchair in their room.

"Perhaps we should have considered camp for them," Rudy mused, poking Mike, who was had collapsed helplessly from mirth back on the bed, as he passed. "Summer camp is an institution for Millers and Websters, after all!"


	7. Chapter 7

It's not that Andy hadn't noticed that he and his brothers hadn't left the house much since they arrived ten days ago. It's just, well, there's a part of Andy that _never_ wants to leave Mike and Rudy's house, not ever again. It's not a very big part, not yet anyway, but there's something about the house -- it's big and comfortable and is full of the sort of furniture that you can curl up on without someone yelling at you that you're spreading dirt everywhere -- that makes Andy think it's the second best house he's ever been in.

It's a lot bigger than the first best house, which was just a normal house that he had lived in with his mom and dad (and he's not sure it _would_ have been the best house in the world, if it hadn't had his room, with the blue walls and blue carpet that he picked out himself, and the kitchen with his mom's plants growing in the window and David's fingerpaintings stuck to the fridge with magnets, and the way it smelled like home). That house didn't have a pool or separate offices for two guys or a gym in the basement or what Rudy called a master suite. Andy got lost upstairs the first two nights -- he couldn't find the bathroom and ended up wandering around and walking into things until Mike came out of the room he and Rudy shared and showed him where it was again. The third night there was a little light plugged into the wall outside the room he was sharing with David and Xav, and the bathroom door was wide open into the hall.

So, it's a big house, and it's fun, because Mike and Rudy have cool stuff, like the giant TV that Mike rolls his eyes about, saying it's Rudy's toy, and the pool, and the Playstation III with a lot of games that Mike says they're too young to play because of all the violence and Super Mario Karts, which Rudy brought home from work the other night and that Andy can beat everyone on except Rudy himself. (Andy would suspect that Mike was letting him win when they played, except Mike seems just as bad no matter who he is playing and just says "Tell that to your insurance company" to Rudy when he says something about Mike being a Volvo driver. Rudy, he already knows, would never _let_ anyone win.)

Now, though, Andy is listening to Mike and Rudy talk from his usual place in the stairs and he knows that the uninterrupted time at the house (at _home_, he knows Mike would want him to say) is over. He hasn't missed that either Mike or Rudy (and in the evenings, both) are always with them, or nearby. They know he knows, because they don't pretend that he doesn't sit on the stairs every night listening to them talk. Sometimes Rudy will come up and invite him down for cocoa. Sometimes he thinks he must have fallen asleep there, because he'll find himself back in bed without really remembering going back. David says he say Rudy carrying him once, stroking Andy's hair for a moment he'd put Andy into bed, but Andy is pretty sure David was dreaming, because that doesn't sound much like Rudy.

"They've had time to settle," Rudy was saying now, "And I refuse to go to the mall alone again."

Mike laughed. "Chicken," he said. "All right, yes, I know I can't keep them here forever. I just. I don't know. I wanted them to feel _safe_ for a while."

Andy could imagine Rudy's raised eyebrows, even though his voice didn't change. "I'd be the first to tell you that the mall isn't safe for any man, Mike, but I think you're worrying too much. They've been shopping before. Besides, we need to get them more clothes and new shoes and we need them there for that."

Mike laughed again, and then sighed when Rudy moved closer to him and began to knead his shoulders. Their voices dropped to murmurs, and Andy slipped quietly away to the bedroom he still shared with his brothers.

"Whassa'matter?" slurred David, half waking when Andy bumped into his bed on the way back to his own.

"They're taking us shopping tomorrow," Andy said, and David opened his eyes and looked at him.

"Shopping?" David seemed surprised.

"For clothes and stuff," said Andy, climbing back into bed.

There was a long pause, and he thought David must have gone back to sleep. Andy's own eyes started to close.

"Do... Do you want us to try to run away again?" David said, suddenly, sounding worried, and Andy opened his eyes to look at the dark shape David made beneath the covers.

"Do you want to?" he said, feeling his stomach knot up. In his corner, Xav made a little noise. "Xav?"

"I don't know," David sounded frightened. Xav got up with a rustle of bedclothes and crossed the room, climbing into bed with his twin. David pressed close to him. Andy wished there were room for three.

"Let's not, then," he said finally. "We don't have to yet. We'll stay with them tomorrow. It's hard to run away at the mall, anyway."

"Okay," said David, and Andy was sure he could hear relief in his voice. Xav said nothing, but rolled into a tighter ball next to David.

Andy turned away, and huddled into his own pillow. For a moment there was silence, and then Andy heard a creak, as if someone had been standing in the hallway outside their room, and a sound like a door closing gently.


End file.
